hi I'm Erin purchasing seeds every spring is part of the rhythm and the
routine of the ranch we must prepare for the upcoming gardening season and
there's always new varieties and crops to try but when there are leftover seeds
from last year it doesn't mean that those can't be used as well today we do
a simple germination test on some seeds and we talk about how long your old
seeds are good for on our wyoming life
I love seed catalogs they help me get through the darkest part of winter every
year they start showing up well before Christmas time and they help renew my
hope that spring will eventually come I spent hours poring over the different
catalogs and searching for the perfect varieties to grow I've almost finished
ordering everything for this year and soon they will be going into the ground
because I'm growing on such a large scale part of my ordering time really
goes into figuring out how much seed I will need to purchase I made a video
about it last year and there are some really helpful tools out there to help
you calculate seed quantities inevitably though I end up purchasing some excess
seed and that's fine it can be reused again this year sometimes if I find a
great sale on seed I will purchase a lot of it certain things that I grow
year-round like spinach radishes and lettuce they can be purchased in bulk to
help lower the cost all seed can be saved from year to year and if you're
growing heirloom varieties you can even save your own seed from your own
vegetables but that's a whole different video though all seeds do have a shelf
life some store and lasts longer than others it's very simple to find out how
well your seeds are going to germinate in the garden and it can be done now
when there's still snow on the ground and I'm anxious to get into the gardens
I have some small amounts of seeds left over from last year from a bunch of
different crops I will not be testing germination on any of those I didn't
have any germination problems last year in the garden so I'm going to assume
that those varieties will all germinate normally since they are only one year
old I did go to our local seed library and get a bunch of different seeds and
I'm going to test the germination on them most of these seeds are from 2015
so we will be able to get a good idea of how well some of the older seed
germinates I report all this information back to the seed library and they can
decide if the germination rates are acceptable so we really actually don't
need a lot of supplies to do a home germination test we need some baggies
and got some paper towels a marker and all of our seed that's really all
that we need the first thing that we're gonna do today is take some paper towel
and I'm gonna fold it this is one square sheet or if this one has the the half
sheets so I'm going to just take this we're only germinating ten seeds so we
don't need a lot of paper towels so I'm gonna get it wet fold it and then
squeeze it out we want it damp but not soaking wet so now I have a nice square
of damp paper towel first thing that we're going to germinate today is some
zucchini zucchini is something that always comes in packets of 25 and if
you're a home gardener you probably don't need 25 zucchini so this is a
great one to keep from leftover from year to year I'm gonna tear open the
bottom of the package so that I can still tell what is in here if I opened
it from the top most likely I would rip this and I wouldn't be able to tell what
kind of seed is in here although there's still a picture but I wouldn't know the
specific variety so I'm going to germinate ten seeds today I'm just gonna
place them on the paper towel once we have them all on there we're gonna fold
it over kind of press it down so that they don't want to slide and roll around
and then I'm gonna take a ziplock baggie and just place it in now because I'm
gonna germinate a whole bunch of seeds today I don't want to use a baggie for
every single one so I'm gonna make sure that I immediately right on top of this
paper towel which variety and crop that I am germinating know the zucchini is
done I'm just gonna fold over the paper packet and keep these seeds for later
and then I'm just gonna keep doing the same thing over and over
the first thing a germination that you're going to see is actually the root
is gonna start to stick out from the seed and once you see the root exposed
then you can count that seed as germinated it's really easy to figure
out your germination rate since we're only doing ten seeds
if eight of them germinate you have an 80% germination rate if only to
germinate then you give a 20% germination rate personally I probably
wouldn't plant anything that's less than 60% germination and if I plant in
something that was that low of a germination rate I would probably double
seed it so once we're all done with each baggie and they're all labeled we're
gonna close the baggie about 3/4 of the way you want to leave some of it open
for just a little bit of air circulation seeds need oxygen to germinate and then
all of these are just gonna get left in my kitchen somewhere where they're
getting some bright indirect light and the temperatures cool but not overly
cool and you don't want it someplace where they're really super warm unless
your germinating something like peppers or tomatoes which I don't have any today
those do like it a little bit warmer so you could put them maybe next to your
I'm just somewhere in a warm spot next to your in your kitchen maybe like next
to your refrigerator would be a great place to germinate those so it's gonna
take just a few days to get our first results here so I am gonna check every
single day make sure that nothing is moldy if any of the seeds become moldy
they are not good seeds and I would go ahead and I would pull them out so that
mold doesn't contaminate anything else and I just want to make sure that every
day that the paper tail towels are staying damp and nothing's drying out
and that there's no mold for me the next time someone calls you a seed hoarder
don't listen to them save your seeds plant that packet of radishes that you
discovered while cleaning out your cupboards are your seeds starting area
if your seat is very old just try the germination test first if you only have
a small supply of seed you can germinate five seeds just keep in mind that the
more that you germinate the better your accuracy will be
often seed packets include Garant quantities that home gardeners just
don't need the home gardener doesn't really need 25 zucchini plants some
years I don't even need 25 zucchini plants after you're done planting don't
throw away the leftovers just keep them in the packet and put them in a dry dark
place for your pests until next year I've included a link in the description
for some more info on how to store your seeds for best for germination results
and there's also some information in there about how long seeds are good for
typically thank you to the northeast Wyoming seed library for the seeds to
test for this video I will be returning all of my extras as well as reporting
the results from our seed testing seed libraries are a great place to find new
varieties of seeds as well as seeds that are more acclimated to your area's
climate seed libraries are also a great place to look for more information on
how to save your own seed and more information on storing seeds specific to
your local climate if it's really humid you're gonna want to take precautions
against your seed becoming too wet and if you're really dry like we are here in
Wyoming we even want to make sure that we don't over dry our seeds I would
highly recommend that you look for a seed library in your local area if you
don't have a seed library near you though there are a bunch of links in the
description and there's some really great resources online about seeds
storing and longevity make sure that you find us on Facebook in Instagram for
results from our seed germination test I will be posting those results as soon as
I have them I'm thinking in three to five days we will probably have some
results we also post tons of other content so if
you need more pictures of the cows and the pigs and the weather make sure you
check us out on Facebook or Instagram I am so anxious for spring to be here but
it's nice to be prepping and to be planning for the upcoming season thanks
for joining me as we explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary on our
Wyoming life and a great one that week that sounds stupid
don't use that part I'm going to open the bottom of the package so that we can
still see what is in here because if I tear off the top we're not going to know
let's do that again